Gary Higgins, Red Hash (CD)

This introverted private-press folk LP from 1973 has a coterie of die-hard fans, who are generally super wise musicians and record collectors. While I like Red Hash and appreciate the 2005 CD reissue, I don't count myself among the die-hard. There are some incredibly beautiful songs here, especially the opener "Thicker than a Smokey" and "I Pick Notes from the Sky", but I find the rest of the album less consistent. The vocals don't sound great on the obviously low-budget recording, and they're buried lower in the mix than I'd like to hear them (Higgins has a cool, distinctive vocal style, but the takes here aren't always special). The remaster doesn't much help the vocals (it does make the guitars sound nice) and the bass frequencies feel uneven here.